ONLINE
OPTIMISING YOURSELF ONLINE By John Whittam, Digital Marketing Manager at Numark WHY DO I NEED A WEBSITE?
A website offers a cost effective and timely platform to communicate with your target audience twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Customers will have an expectancy of having the convenience of being able to find your pharmacy and relevant information online and, if they can’t, you may lose that valuable custom to a competitor who does have an online presence.
Not only will a website help you reach customers, it will also prove to be a cost-effective tool to attract a huge number of prospective customers. You can dictate the key messages to showcase your offering to prospects and, as such, drive awareness of key benefits such as services your pharmacy has to offer, or any promotions you currently have running: both of which will likely result in increased footfall in your pharmacy.
Many customers nowadays prefer to order products online. Having a website will give you the opportunity to add an ecommerce function that will capture orders for an increasing number of customers. Not only that, but your online store can be accessed 24 hours a day -meaning you are always open for business.
HOW DO I GET A WEBSITE?
To tackle building your own website is often very challenging and can result in producing a substandard website that can have a detrimental effect on
both your pharmacy brand and your reputation.
With this in mind, I would recommend utilising a professional web design company with knowledge of the pharmacy industry, who can provide fully functional website solutions with on-going support.
WHAT ELSE SHOULD I CONSIDER WHEN SETTING UP A WEBSITE?
Relevant name – ideally your website name (known as domain name) wants to reflect the name of your pharmacy - such as
www.samplepharmacy.com. However, if this isn’t available, just ensure the name is something your customers and prospective customers would likely search for.
Easily identifiable ‘calls to action’ – don’t have your key messages at the bottom of your webpage as it will likely not get seen. Access to online repeat prescription orders or a link to your online shop should feature prominently on your homepage.
Don’t include too much on your homepage – your homepage needs to effectively communicate that you are a pharmacy, what you offer to customers and what your customers can achieve from the website.
Quick tip - The main menu should focus on the most relevant things for your users/customers and include the range of services you offer, over the counter medicines, any offers you have at that time, contact information and ordering repeat prescriptions.
Easy navigation and user-friendly design – a website should allow users
to find anything on your website within three clicks. When thinking about the structure, try and maintain a consistency throughout. Put yourself in the shoes of the user and think about where they would expect to find particular content.
Regular maintenance – an outdated website will only serve to detract from a user’s confidence in your offering. Ensure you set aside time to update your site and ensure the content is relevant. In summer, for example, you may want to offer hay fever advice and in winter focus more on winter ailments.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – optimising your website will mean your website will show higher in search engine results from the likes of Google. This can be critical in driving relevant users to your website. A regular flow of new or updated content, along with researching and using keywords in your pages will help here.
Mobile friendly – the majority of webpages are now opened on a mobile device or tablet rather than on a desktop computer and, as such, you will need to consider accommodating a mobile-friendly website design to gain a higher conversion rate.
HOW DO I KNOW HOW EFFECTIVE MY WEBSITE IS?
Google Analytics is a reporting tool that can give you either a brief overview or detailed analysis of how your website is performing.
You can see anything - from which
pages are visited most on a given day, to which of your social media platforms is proving most popular in referring users to your website, to determining how much revenue a particular product on your online shop is generating with a promotional period.
Quick tip - within your website listing on Google Analytics you will be able to set up different ‘Views’. These will allow you to see a specific set of data, you may want to exclude any ‘Page Views’ from your pharmacy IP address so as to give you a more accurate reflection of how many times the page has been viewed by customers or prospective customers.
The sheer volume of data available through Google Analytics means it can be overwhelming when trying to pick out the statistics and figures that are relevant and will make a difference to your website.
I would advise encouraging a member of the team to take a look at the Google Analytics Academy which offers a series of online courses. You will likely find the Google Analytics for Beginners course will suffice in helping set up your account and gaining an understanding of key functionality.
Simply search ‘Google Analytics Academy’ and select ‘Google Analytics for Beginners’.
Lots more online marketing guidance is available to Numark members via
www.numarknet.com including discounts off website build and design through our partnership with The Pharmacy Website Company. •
SCOTTISH PHARMACIST - 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
